CAGAYAN STATE UNIVERSITY

Andrews Campus, Tuguegarao City

GRADUATE SCHOOL

SUBJECT: ADVANCE PHYSIOLOGY

NAME: ARVIN G. CONCHA
PROF.: MS.CELIAFLOR R. FERRER, Ph. D.

OBESITY

Over nutrition can cause malnutrition. Obesity, the excess accumulation of body
fat, is a serious form of malnutrition that has become a problem of epidemic proportions
in affluent societies. The WHO considers obesity among the most important global health
problems. Obesity contributes to about 300, 000 deaths annually in the US and is the
second leading preventable cause of death (second only to smoking). It is a major risk
factor for heart disease, diabetes mellitus, certain types of cancer including breast and
colon cancers), hypertension, osteoarthritis and liver and gallbladder disease. In the well-
known Framingham study of more than 2000 men those who were 20% overweight had
a significantly higher mortality rate from all causes.

Body mass index, now used worldwide as a measure of body size, is an index of
weight in relation to height. It is calculated by dividing the square of the weight by height.
The equivalent in the US is 4.89 times the weight divided by the square of the height. An
adult who has a BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight. An adult who has a
BMI of 30 or more is considered obese. An estimated 17% of US weight is regulated.
Dieting can be difficult because when BMI decreases below an individual set point,
energy-conserving mechanisms are activated and energy expenditure decreases.

In addition to an array of signalling molecules that affect energy metabolism and

body weight, researchers have identified several gene mutations that affect food intake
and energy homeostasis. The number of fat cells in the adult is apparently determined
mainly by the amount of fat stored during infancy and childhood. When we are overfed
early in life, abnormally large numbers of fat cells are formed. Later in life, these fat cells
may be fully stocked with excess lipids or may shrink in size but they are always there.
People with such increase numbers of fat cells are thought to be at greater risks for
obesity than are those with normal numbers. Eating activates the dopamine reward
circuit in the brain. The amount of dopamine released corresponds to the intensity of
pleasure experienced by eating the food. One hypothesis holds that obese individuals
may have an underactive dopamine reward system. They overeat to compensate and
may develop a food addiction.

Although many factors involved in obesity are inherited, behaviour is critically

important. High-calories diets, overeating and under exercising lead to obesity and
psychosocial factors influence these behaviours. A sedentary lifestyle combined with the
ready availability of high energy foods contributes to the problem. One researcher
cleverly described the roots of the obesity problem as the combination of computer
chips and potato chips. For every 9.3 kal of excess food taken into the body, about 1 f of
fat is stored.